US jobless claims fall last week as layoffs remain low despite global economic uncertainty

Washington, Apr 16 (AP) US applications for unemployment benefits fell last week, remaining in the range of the past few years even as the war in Iran continues to threaten the global economy.
     The number of Americans applying for jobless aid for the week ending April 11 fell by 11,000 to 2,07,000 from the previous week's 2,18,000, the Labour Department reported Thursday.
     That's less than the 2,17,000 new applications analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet were expecting but within the range of the past several years.
     Filings for unemployment benefits are considered representative of US layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.
     The Iran war, now in its seventh week, has injected a large degree of uncertainty about how it will affect the US and global economies even as Iran and the US agreed to a ceasefire last week.
     US financial markets have rebounded in recent weeks and oil prices have settled in around USD 92 per barrel, better than last week's USD 112 but still 37 per cent higher than before the war began. Gas prices also remain elevated, saddling businesses and consumers with higher costs.
     The largest monthly jump in gas prices in six decades sent consumer prices up 3.3 per cent in March from a year earlier, the Labour Department said Friday. That's up sharply from just 2.4 per cent in February and the biggest yearly increase since May 2024.
     On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.9 per cent in March from February, the largest such increase in nearly four years.
     This comes at a time when US inflation was already above the Federal Reserve's 2 per cent target, further diminishing the chances of an interest rate cut by central bank officials any time soon.
     Fed officials voted to raise the rate three times to close 2025 out of concern for a weakening job market but have held off lowering rates further this year.
     The Labour Department reported earlier this month that US employers added an unexpectedly strong 1,78,000 new jobs in March, nudging the unemployment rate back down to 4.3 per cent. That followed a surprisingly large loss of 92,000 jobs in February. Revisions also have trimmed 69,000 jobs from December and January payrolls, a sign that the labour market remains under strain.
     A number of high-profile companies have cut jobs recently, including Morgan Stanley,Block, UPSand Amazon.
     Weekly jobless aid applications have stabilised in a range mostly between 2,00,000 and 2,50,000 since the US economy emerged from the pandemic recession. However, hiring began slowing about two years ago and tapered further in 2025 due to President Donald Trump's erratic tariff rollouts, his purge of the federal workforce and the lingering effects of high interest rates meant to control inflation.
     Employers added fewer than 2,00,000 jobs last year, compared with about 1.5 million in 2024, according to the data firm FactSet.
     The American labour market appears stuck in what economists call a “low-hire, low-fire” state that has kept the unemployment rate historically low, but has left those out of work struggling to find a new job.
     The Labour Department's report Thursday showed that the four-week moving average of jobless claims, which evens out some of the weekly volatility, rose by 500 to 2,09,750.
     The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the previous week ending April 4 rose by 31,000 to 1.82 million, in line with analyst forecasts. (AP) NPK
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)